Tag Archives: training

This post was written by the State Library Services (9/20/13, 11:15 am)

Preparing for the Affordable Care Act

In a new partnership with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, State Library Services is pleased to announce Affordable Care Act training sessions for library staff. The Department of Commerce recognizes the central role that libraries play in helping to connect Minnesotans to essential information, and wants to make sure that all Minnesotans understand their rights and options under the Affordable Care Act. State Library Services’ goal is to ensure that library staff are prepared to help library patrons navigate the new healthcare insurance landscape.

Designed as train-the-trainer sessions, the training will be offered via conference calls and include ample time for questions and answers. The training will help prepare library staff to work with patrons who are shopping for health insurance through MNsure or the private market. Alyssa Von Ruden who is a Health Policy Advisor at the Minnesota Department of Commerce will lead the sessions. Alyssa is an expert in the Affordable Care Act as it relates to insurance change in Minnesota.

Sessions will be held on Thursday, September 26 (10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) and Monday, September 30 (3p.m. – 4p.m.).To participate, call 1-888-742-5095; when prompted, enter the Conference Code: 787 494 7876. To support library staff over the longer term, State Library Services will be scheduling monthly conference calls with the Department of Commerce that will give library staff a chance to get up-to-date information to address emerging issues.

Upcoming sessions will be announced through State Library Services’ listserv. If you have questions about this training opportunity or would like to to sign up for State Library Services’ listserv please contact Jennifer Nelson at 651-582-8791 or Jennifer.r.nelson@state.mn.us.

As part of an on-going series, ELM is offering the following webinars this March:

Intro to ELM for Teachers: English Language Arts [Session 4]Tuesday, March 5, 3:30-4:00 PM
This 30-minute webinar will introduce the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and discuss ways English language arts teachers from across the state use ELM in the classroom. The session is geared toward classroom teachers looking for trustworthy online content to support classroom preparation, lesson plan building, and student projects.

Intro to ELM for Teachers: Education Professional Development [Session 5]Tuesday, March 12, 3:30-4:00 PM
This 30-minute webinar will introduce the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and discuss ways educators from across the state use ELM to stay current in their field. The session is geared toward classroom teachers looking for education-related news, research, and best practices.

Are you a trainer seeking training? In January, CMLE highlighted an organization call WebJunction. As a learning site for libraries they provide online, self-paced courses to all members of the Minnesota library community. Each month you can elect to add a new course(s) to your professional development portfolio at no cost.

Here is a sample of this month’s FREE program:

Image provided by WebJunction

How Libraries can meet the Evolving Needs of Patrons in the Digital Age

The Future of Online Learning: a changing landscape

Self-Directed Achievement: if you give library staff an hour…

You can also take a sneak peek at the complete list of more than forty courses offered by WebJunction.

Check out the WebJunction Events Calendar to see the list of new, free webinars that are available to the full Minitex library community. The calendar also provides access to archived versions of recent webinars.

Several upcoming webinars available to the full library community are:

The human brain is wired to respond to images. Scientific studies of the brain are providing powerful insights for designing and delivering presentations that grab the attention of the learner. Once you understand the key concepts of strong visual communication, you can get unstuck from the stale text-and-bullet format of presentation. You don’t need to be a designer to learn some simple tips and tricks that will punch up your presentations and wake up your audience.

We know that libraries are a good investment but with tight budgets, we need to energize our base – to take action to connect more strongly with community members, to find out what excites them, and to let them know how libraries are changing lives – one connection at a time. Our panel will explore three vehicles that can help you increase awareness of library services:

Library Videos – New videos from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that showcase work done in libraries that are transforming lives by changing the way we connect.Geek the Library – A community awareness campaign offered free to libraries to help strengthen community connections and library support.Data Visualization – We collect lots of data. Learn how the Colorado State Library is helping local libraries use their data to tell a story about impact.

The PEARL (Promoting and Enhancing the Advancement of Rural Libraries)Project has been successful in helping Texas rural librarians reach out to groups and organizations in their communities and to raise visibility of and appreciation for their libraries. Community outreach plans, designed to identify and fill a need in the community, are at the heart of this unique model. The process is supported by an actionable template which leads participants from community assessment, through strategic planning, to implementation, and concludes with evaluating outcomes. This webinar, co-sponsored with WebJunction and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, will explore the outstanding results achieved by participants in the PEARL project and share how community outreach plans have led to unexpected outcomes and some surprising results.

Presented by: Barbara Blake, Outreach Coordinator for the PEARL Project, University of North Texas; and Louise W. Greene, Association for Rural and Small Libraries and PEARL Mentor.

Looking for some magic to improve customer service in your library? The Disney Institute on Quality Service has set high standards for creating a quality customer experience and their ideas can be applied at your library. Our panel of Colorado librarians attended the Disney Institute Quality Service preconference sponsored by ALA’s LearnRT at the annual conference in Anaheim in 2012. Since then, they’ve been waving their magic wands to improve customer service in Colorado libraries and they’d like to share their discoveries with you. Learn how to define quality service, set a common purpose for all library staff, and better understand your customers. You’ll walk away with ideas to make your library’s customer service sparkle.

This WebJunction webinar is presented in collaboration with ALA’s LearnRT. Did you attend the Disney Institute? Join this conversation and share your ideas and successes.

What does an ice cream sundae have to do with library partnerships? Let’s pretend that your community organizations (school, academic, public and special libraries, and other local organizations) are your favorite kind of ice cream. Now let’s ladle your favorite toppings over the ice cream to represent the organizations’ resources, programs, personnel and funding. How can the ice cream “mix” with the toppings to be the most luscious dessert possible for the most people? When community organizations collaborate to share their resources with one another, they make the biggest possible impact on the most lives. Learn easy, understandable and powerful strategies that will give you renewed energy to create bold and imaginative collaborations among all types of community organizations.

We hear about libraries that are leaders in innovation, implementing ideas that keep the library growing and vital. Perhaps you have watched from the sidelines and wished you could kickstart some innovation at your library, but you’re not sure where to start. Come to this webinar for an active and lively discussion on how to find innovative ideas, how to connect with the people to help make them happen, and how to get buy-in and support for your ideas. There is a lot to be learned from other libraries’ examples and experiences.